WWEV
WWEV, virtual channel 34 (UHF digital channel 27), is an independent television station located in Mixopolis, Planet Mixel. It is owned by Weigel Broadcasting. The station's studios and offices are located on Grand Street in Downtown Mixopolis, and its transmitter is located atop Overlook Mountain. History WWEV first signed on the air on October 1, 1982, and has been owned by Weigel Broadcasting since its inception. At the time of its original sign-on it was the seventh independent station in the Mixopolis market, alongside WBEX-TV (channel 6), WXIM (channel 11), WOOM (channel 13), WKMX (channel 26), WHJ-TV (channel 38, now WRMP) and WXPL (channel 68). It initially ran religious programs during the early morning hours and a simulcast of The Stock Market Observer from Chicago sister station and flagship WEIG – a business news block similar in format to the present-day cable channel CNBC – from about 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. each weekday; the service broadcast from the trading floor of the Chicago Board of Trade. During the weekend, WWEV ran a blend of religious programs and paid programming. The station also was popular for its weekend block of professional wrestling and roller derby including World Class Championship Wrestling, Mid-Atlantic Wrestling's syndicated show World Wide Wrestling and arcade game playthroughs. In the fall of 1988, WWEV embarked on the station's first brief foray in television news. WWEV began producing WWEV News Now, a primetime newscast at 8 p.m. anchored by a radio newscaster from Mix Orleans. The program was moved frequently: first to 7 p.m., then to 9 p.m., and finally to 11 p.m. In 1992, WWEV stopped producing full-fledged newscasts; the station instead produced local news updates. The station also stopped producing all other original in-house programming, except for the minimum amount required by the FCC. On December 31, 1994, WWEV completed a major overhaul and rebranded as "The V". Channel 34's programming began to feature mostly classic sitcoms and drama series that previously aired or continued to air on other Mixopolis independent stations (by this point, WXIM and WKMX had left the independent station ratings race to join the Fox and Koopa Troop Television Networks, respectively; while WOOM and WXPL were about to respectively become charter affiliates of the United Paramount Network and The WB Television Network), such as The Munsters, Gilligan's Island, Hogan's Heroes, The Rockford Files, Leave It to Beaver, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Beverly Hillbillies, The Cosby Show, Saved by the Bell, The Doris Day Show and My Three Sons). The station also hosted the newly-revived horror/sci-fi movie showcase Svengoolie's first foray outside the Chicago market. Initially, the station continued to simulcast WEIG's Stock Market Observer from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and entertainment programming in all other weekday timeslots and throughout much of the broadcast day on weekends. Reruns of the iconic courtroom drama Perry Mason had been on the station since 1988, where it aired early mornings on WWEV's main channel until January 2011 (most of the aforementioned shows currently air on the station's MeTV subchannel on digital channel 34.2). On September 9, the Stock Market Observer simulcast was reduced to a 3½-hour block from 9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., a move panned by some viewers; although it cited that Weigel had "no intention of killing" the program. In 2000, the program was rebranded as "WebFN", a joint venture between Weigel and Bridge Information Systems. By the late 1990s, WWEV began adding more recent sitcoms; the station began to add more syndicated first-run talk and reality shows onto its daytime lineup in 2000. Classic sitcoms gradually disappeared from WWEV's schedule between 2001 and 2011. Early in 2005, the business news format was scaled back to include only the existing syndicated program First Business, which Weigel had assumed production responsibilities for in 2003 after WebFN went bankrupt. That program continued until the end of 2014 under Weigel ownership. In September 2008, WWEV relaunched it's website. The new website brought a new look, promoting the station's new programming format, and removing the forum section for viewers to post questions and comments on WWEV programming that many stations provide. In the fall of 2009, the station added ESPN Plus' syndication package of Southeastern Conference football and men's basketball (now branded as SEC TV), and added its coverage of Big 12 Conference men's basketball during the 2010-11 season. The SEC TV syndication package ended in 2014 because of the launch of the new SEC Network as part of a 20-year deal between the Southeastern Conference and ESPN. On July 4, 2011, WWEV launched a new, revised website, as well as a new station logo, programming promotions for WWEV's main channel (34.1) and MeTV subchannel (34.2), videos, and news headlines for Mixopolis. Programming Syndicated programs broadcast on WWEV (as of September 2016) include Dealer's Choice, WinTuition, America's Court with Judge Ross, Judge Alex, The Verdict With Glenda Hatchett, T.D. Jakes, Dr. Phil, Judge Mathis, Blankety Blanks and Click. WWEV also carries the Go Time syndication E/I block, as did to other Weigel Broadcasting stations that carrying the E/I syndication block. The V'z Toons WWEV has a block of adult mature cartoon reruns, known as "The V'z Toons", from 3PM to Midnight on Saturday. The block currently consists of American Dad!, The Cleveland Show, King of the Hill, Family Guy and Bob's Burgers. Other shows that previously aired as part of The V'z Toons were Futurama and South Park. The block originally aired all Saturday long beginning at 5PM Eastern time. On September 16th, 2016, the block moved up its start time to 3PM, to accompany the addition of Bob's Burgers. Newscasts In June 2014, WWEV entered into a news share agreement with E.W. Scripps Company-owned ABC affiliate WXYZ-TV to produce an hour-long 10:00 p.m. newscast for channel 34. Originally titled 7 Action News at 10 on The V, the program debuted on June 16, 2014 as the twelfth 10:00 p.m. newscast among the Mixopolis market's commercial television stations, behind the longer established in-house newscasts on WXPL, Mix TV flagship station WMX (channel 1), New Line Network owned-and-operated station WMXNL (channel 2), Fox owned-and-operated station WXIM, and American Broadcast Network owned-and-operated station WAMX (channel 50); a 10:00 p.m. newscast on Rainbow Dash Network owned-and-operated station WRMP (channel 38) produced at the time by CBS owned-and-operated station WEOM (channel 3), and newscasts launched since 1986 on UPN owned-and-operated station WUPM (channel 18), Koopa Troop Television Network owned-and-operated station WKMX, Import Network owned-and-operated station WMXP (channel 32), TNT owned-and-operated station WDVI (channel 43), and WB owned-and-operated station WMWB (channel 44). WXYZ-TV became the first Scripps-owned station to produce a newscast for a separately owned station in its home market. On August 4, 2014, WWEV also introduced a two-hour extension of Action News This Morning, running from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.; also competing against WXPL and WXIM, both of which have historically been the only other stations in Mixopolis to air newscasts both in the mornings and at 10 PM. The newscasts were rebranded as ABC 7 Action News on The V on April 24, 2017 as part of a larger rebranding of WXYZ-TV. On that date, the WXYZ 7 PM newscast moved to The V to make room for Jeopardy!. Category:Weigel Broadcasting Category:Channel 34 Category:Mixopolis Category:Planet Mixel Category:Television channels and stations established in 1982 Category:Independent stations Category:Stations that use "Action News" Category:Stations that use its call letters